Here are my observations and opinions on my selected news of the day.
WOULDN’T YOU THINK that the Mueller Report would have had extensive coverage of the so-called dossier? After all, wasn’t it central to the investigation? But, no. Neither it’s author Christopher Steele, nor the dossier, are mentioned once in the collusion section of the report. Steele’s effort appears in the obstruction section of the report almost as an afterthought.
Further, there was no mention of Fusion GPS and Steele’s colleague Glenn Simpson by name.
“The paucity of attention to Steele’s work – and its origin, how and to whom it was disseminated, and what role it played in the “collusion” investigation – smacks of an attempt to downplay its significance,” noted Ben Weingarten in The Federalist.
But it was significant. It was the primary supporting document for the FISA warrants that failed to include that the DNC and Clinton campaign had funded it.
The DNC and Hillary Clinton’s campaign directed the law firm Pekins Coie to retain Fusion GPS in April 2016 to dig up dirt on candidate Donald Trump. Records show that Hillary for America paid about $5 million to Perkins Coie in 2016, while the DNC paid them nearly $5.4 million the same year.
Federal Election Commission records also show that former President Barack Obama’s official organization – Obama for America – paid over $972,000 to Perkins Coie classified as “legal services.”
Not so coincidentally, while Hillary’s campaign, Obama’s organization and the DNC were simultaneously paying Perkins Coie, the spouse of one of Fusion GPS’s key employees, was working for Obama in the West Wing – Shailagh Murray, a former Washington Post reporter-turned- political operative.
While she was a communications advisor to Obama, his administration was reportedly using dossier information to justify surveillance of Trump campaign staff.
So, is it any wonder that Mueller and his staff of a dozen Clinton supporters wanted to see the dossier and Fusion GPS downplayed in the report?
IT DOESN’T END THERE, HOWEVER – Attorney General Bill Barr has expressed an interest in investigating the beginnings of the surveillance – spying – on the Trump campaign. And Sen. Lindsay Graham, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has indicated that the Clinton connection will be investigated.
SHE JUST CAN’T KEEP HER MOUTH SHUT – Hillary Clinton felt the need to comment on the Mueller Report and spoke as if she was never guilty of anything – Benghazi, pay for access, and mishandling classified documents – just because she was never held accountable for her actions.
“We have significant evidence that this administration (Trump’s) did everything it could to undermine and interfere with the investigation,” she said, “And we are going to walk away and pretend it didn’t happen? There is no accountability for anyone in the most significant job in the world?” Such hypocrisy.
But then she said something she might regret. Note to Barr and Graham: “I’m really of the mind that the Mueller Report is part of the beginning. It’s not the end,” she said, “There’s so much more that we should know and that we should act upon.”
FROM TWITTERDOM comes this gem from Mulder’s Shroom Ride @proteinwisdom: “As many of you will recall, I didn’t vote for Trump. But I will in 2020 without reservation. He’s a flawed human; we all are. But his transparency in the wake of this disgusting coup attempt is laudable. And I want to see him around to destroy those who tried to take him out.”
DID YOU HEAR? In the 24 hours after the attorney general’s release of the Mueller Report, liberal media outlets – CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC – mentioned “impeachment” 309 times, according to Bill D’Agostino at Newsbusters.
CNN was the worst offender with 148 mentions, followed by MSNBC with 138 times. The word count was attributed only to show hosts, analysts and contributors, not political or partisan guests.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell each mentioned impeachment 34 times on their shows.
REVISITING THE BANISHMENT of playing Kate Smith’s rendition of God Bless America at Philadelphia Flyer and New York Yankee games covered in my “More PC Craziness” piece on April 22. 2019.
“If we must lose Smith – if her statue must be taken down, if her songs must be silenced” writes David Marcus in The Federalist, “then how do we justify allowing modern day players, including black players, to wear the uniform of a team that denied black Americans agency and personhood? Any fair treatment of this situation would require that the Yankee pinstripes be retired alongside Smith.”
While some offended individual is willing to throw Smith under the bus, Marcus says, “Fair enough. I am deeply offended by the fact the New York Yankees refused to field a black player for the first of the 20th Century,” as he noted that Branch Rickey and the Brooklyn Dodgers had the courage to break that “rule” in the 1940s.
“The only fair and just thing to do here for the New York Yankees franchise to fold, along with all but the expansion MLB franchises that came into being after integration. We can replace them quickly with new teams, teams that never denied black people the right to play,” suggests Marcus.
But as Marcus alluded, that would cost the owners money. Deriding the memory of a deceased woman who achieved greatness is easy.
(Graphic creator unknown.)
KLOBUCHAR’S JEB BUSH MOMENT – During her appearance on a CNN townhall event, Democrat presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar was trying to make a point about her creds by explain her string of victories in Minnesota.
“And every single time, I have won. I have won every single congressional district in my state, including Michele Bachmann’s. Okay?” Hearing crickets, she told the crowd – “That’s when you guys are supposed to cheer. Okay?” A polite applause followed.
It was a reminder of what Fox News Channel called the “most cringeworthy moment of the 2016 campaign.” During an appearance in New Hampshire on February 2, 2016, Jeb Bush delivered an applause line the flopped. When the audience sat in silence, Bush pitifully asked – “please clap.”
LAUGH-OF-THE-DAY – Presumably in support of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, the leftist mayor of New York City, Bill DeBlasio wants to ban the construction of skyscrapers of steel and glass in the Big Apple.
May God bless the United States of America.
